Trade unions

Further progress for the cause of transparency and accountability. Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis has announced new rules to increase town hall transparency by producing guidance requiring councillors to register trade union affiliations and dealings. This is intended to avoid conflicts of interest when councils consider issues directly affecting trade unions, such as reviews of taxpayer-funded subsidies given to trade unions.

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said:

"For too long residents have been kept in the dark about what union affiliations their councillors hold. All councillors should disclose all their personal and financial interests on a public register, including registering union interests. Given the public debate about ‘facility time’ and ‘pilgrims’ in local government, it’s vital that conflicts of interest are avoided. These transparency reforms will give local people the confidence that their councillors are putting residents’ interests before their own.

"The new guidance builds on existing transparency measures introduced as part of the Localism Act and is part of the new arrangements for local authority standards that replaced the bureaucratic and controversial Standards Board regime, abolished in 2012, which ministers believe had become a vehicle for malicious, petty and politically motivated complaints."

Councillors in the pay of trade unions should not participate in votes deciding whether or not trade unions should be in the pay of councils.

The Department for Communities and Local Government are pressing ahead with changes that will end the "check off" system - this is the arrangement where instead of trade unions collecting their own subs the Government does it for them via the payroll system. The Public and Commercial Services Union, led by their Trotskyist General Secretary Mark Serwotka, challenged the plan and won on a technicality involving the staff handbook terms agreed by the last Labour Government which will now be changed.

The Mirror has triumphantly reported that the legal action would cost taxpayers £90,000. However they did not report that the PCS still owes the Government money - due a larger unpaid bill from two years ago for costs awarded to the Government after PCS's failed judicial review of the Civil Service Compensation scheme reforms.

There is also good progress being made on cutting "facility time staffing costs" - this is the scandal where staff are paid by the taxpayer by spend their time working as union officials, the "Pilgrims." The saving for the DCLG and it's various agencies will come to £400,000 a year as these posts are phased out.

The Public and Commercial Services Union have been distributing this leaflet to advertise a demonstration they are holding outside the Department for Communities and Local Government today.

The protest is prompted by the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles ending the arrangement where the DCLG collects trade union subscriptions via the "check off" system.

This meant staff had their union subs deducted by the payroll department and it was handed over the unions.

They also complain that the DCLG's spending on Pilgrims - taxpayer funded union reps has been cut by 805. Also that there has been a 40% cut in admin spending at the DCLG and that there will be a further 10% fall in the DCLG budget by 2015/16.

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said:

"For too long in the public sector, trade unions have received taxpayer funding that is poor value for money and inadequately controlled.

"Reducing such public subsidies to trade unions is a practical way that councils can save money, to keep council tax down and protect frontline services for local residents - including union members themselves. And my department is practising what we preach to councils.

"Trade union activities and campaigning should be funded through consenting members' subscriptions, not bankrolled by the taxpayer. Freedom from state dependency will mean that trade union bosses will better reflect and respond to the wishes and views of the grassroots members."

Martin Mayer, chair of Unite’s political committee, offered a heartfelt plea to Socialist Worker readers last year to come and help advance the cause within the Labour Party.

He offered this cheering thought:

We know that barely a dozen left trade unionists can turn around poorly attended constituency Labour Parties up and down the country.

We have sharp new political education courses and we are creating a network to keep them in touch with Unite policies and give help and assistance. There is a new Unite councillors network to push our policies—particularly against the cuts.

One of the most basic requirements for a credible, responsible, local authority is to set a budget. It can avoid cuts by proposing a huge Council Tax increase and seeking to convince their residents of the case for this via a referendum.

This is not proposed by Unite. Instead their preference, as I understand it, is for not setting a budget. Any council doing this would still face cuts but would have them imposed direct from Whitehall. The Unite union thinks this sounds rather a good idea - lots of agitprop opportunities. There are 18 Labour councillors - that is Labour councillors retaining the whip - who are signed up to this proposition.

It seems to have been the main job that Cllr Lisa Forbes had before being selected as the Labour candidate for Peterborough - one of the selection victories that the far left leadership of Unite are boasting about. She is now a "stay at home mum" - but in what sense is that more working class than middle class?

According to her register of interests thus far it is the Communication Workers Union that has been funding her. Also Professor Bernard Barker - who says it is a myth that transformational heads or competition can improve school standards. Then there is also the left wing activist and writer Owen Jones who has given money.

Cllr Catherine West is the Leader of Islington Council, and the Labour candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green at the next General Election. Unite, the Union, boasts that she is one of the selections it helped secure.

I have nothing personally against Cllr West. She's Australian and I have always found Australians straight talking and easy to get on with. I met her once at a Leaders' Committee at London Council. Unlike her I was not a council leader. Stephen Greenhalgh, at the time my council leader in Hammersmith and Fulham had explained to me that the meeting was a complete waste of time and so felt I should represent him. It reminded me of Chris Mullin's diaries ("Nick Raynsford's Private Secretary note still attached: 'This is very low priority. I suggest we pass it to Chris Mullin.' ")

For most the closed show may have gone but it still applies to Labour councillors and Labour council candidates.

The Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is reviewing the rules on councillors' declarations of interest - at present they only have to declare sponsorship from a trade union.

However if they can't find a union, affliated to the Labour Party, to allow them to be a member then they are not eligibile to be a councillor. This is surely a relevant concern that should be declared. Surely acting against his union's policy is something a Labour councillor would wish to avoid?

Mr Pickles says "people now wonder whether or not councillors are working for their residents or for their trade union bosses. And I shall review the matter as a matter of urgency."

With all this talk about Falkirk, what about Deptford? That is the constituency where Cllr Vicky Foxcroft has been chosen to succeed Dame Joan Ruddock as the Labour candidate. This is just one seat where the horse has already bolted. Unite, the union, has already got their candidate in place.

Cllr Foxcroft works full time for Unite. Indeed, so far as I can work out she has never had a proper job. She started out as a student union sabbatical - as "Chair" of Labour Students and a member of the National Union of Students. Her CV proceeds as follows:

June 2002 – August 2005

Research Officer. AEEU.

August 2005 – February 2009

Political Officer. Amicus the Union

February 2009 – Present

Finance Sector Officer / Unite the Union

Certainly her views are left wing. She opposes welfare reform - even the £26,000 limit to Housing Benefit. Indeed she opposes any spending cuts - imagining that however many billions are needed can be effortlessly raised through a Financial Transactions Tax. This opposition to cuts does not seem to apply to Lewisham Council - where she voted in favour of them. She also supported a 1.75% Council Tax rise. But why not a huge Council tax rise, secured by referendum, which would have avoided any cuts?

The Municipal Journal reports(£) on some good progress made by Conservative-run Staffordshire County Council in reducing sickness absence by 8%. That amounts to 9,000 fewer sick days a year.

The new policy means the council’s absence rate is an average of 7.68 days per employee, the same as for the private sector. It estimates the fewer sick days are equivalent to 36 full-time employees or £540,000 worth of productivity.

The new policy was launched last February, with every tier of management receiving monthly absence reports for their teams. A pilot physiotherapy service was also established for staff with musculoskeletal conditions.

Many councils, including Conservatives ones, that are increasing the Council Tax this year claim hey have "no alternative" that they "have done all they can" to find savings. Yet often the same councils are continuing to use Council Taxpayers money to fund the salaries of trade union officials. Harrow Council, for example, increased spending in this area last year to £230,000.

The Department for Communities and Local Government have gone further then before in issuing new guidance to end this abuse.